American Popcorn

Hello from Cahergal House, a farm and B&B outside a small town called Newmarket on Fergus in County Clare, Ireland. I promise a detailed blog about this place soon, but for now I thought I would share some of the interesting lessons I've learned about two of my favorite things: food and conversation.

On Food

Europeans put sweet corn on pizza. "Americans don't seem to have a taste for it," said Paul, the son of Noreen McNerny who runs the B&B here. We didn't have sweet corn on hand yesterday, so I have yet to experience this interesting phenomenon.

Speaking of corn, popcorn here is sold as "American popcorn." I asked Paul why, and he said that's the only way he's ever seen it. I figure it's akin to the tendency in America to call soda bread "Irish soda bread." Noreen makes soda bread; it is hearty and filling with a good crunchy crust.

Zucchini is not called zucchini. Courgette is the proper term (plural courgettes). I still can't imagine calling zucchini bread courgette bread, but I told Noreen I'd make some.

We considered putting some courgettes on our pizza we made yesterday, but didn't have room. My roommate and fellow volunteer here Christa, from Austria, made the pizza from scratch. She dips her pizza in ketchup, and when I asked she said that's how everyone in Austria eats pizza. I tried it out of curiosity, but I think I'll stick with a non-ketchuped pizza. I told her that in the states we sometimes dip pizza in ranch dressing, but had a hard time explaining what ranch dressing actually is.


On conversation

First, some word differences I have noticed:

boot = car trunk
to let = for rent (I see this sign on lots of buildings...)
ring = call (i.e. You ringing Mike right now?)
courgette = zucchini
hoover = vacuum (both in noun and verb forms, i.e. Hoover the breakfast room, please)
queue = line, line up, wait in line
pram = strollers

Now for the accents. I've heard plenty of people speak in an Irish accent before, although they were usually movie stars and perhaps not actually Irish... Here, I have to mortify myself by asking people to repeat themselves two or maybe three times. I was warned that the Irish speak very fast, but as I am a fast talker myself I didn't believe the warning. However, now that I am here and constantly feeling like I am not, in fact, fluent in English I can see why they warned me. Nevertheless, I wouldn't trade a thing because it is delightful being here surrounded by friendly people who, although I can't always understand them, have a beautiful Irish accent.

Again, this is just a small collection of snippets, but I promise to post a nice coherent story about Cahergal House and the four generations of people who have been living on this beautiful property. In the meantime, there are dishes to wash, beds to make, scones to eat, and lots of carpets to hoover...